>--- Rogers Cadenhead <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> Point taken. However, there are numerous things in OGL-licensed works that
>> are closed completely even though they are expressed using the mechanics of
>> the SRD. Just to pick one example off the top of my head, steamjacks are a
>> cool mechanical steampunk giant that are closed in one of the D20 modules I
>> bought. Since the rules embodied by the monster -- the stats in the stat
>> block, combat attacks, and so forth -- are derived from the SRD, shouldn't
>> they be open?
>
>Those which are SRD derived stats (challenge rating and so forth) should be.
>The concept and description of the monster needn't be.
here's my question in this: is *anybody* going to reuse a monster
whose game-mechanical description (stat block) is open, but whose
game-world description isn't? to me, that's pointless--the stats are
the *easy* part to come up with (especially in D&D3E, with all the
guidelines for what they are supposed to be based on the type of
creature), while the description is the hard part. if somebody were
to give me the description, but i had to (re-)invent the stats, i'd
probably do it (assuming, of course, that it was an
interesting/original creature, and fit my
setting/project/scenario/whatever). if somebody gives me the stats,
but i have to (re-)invent the monster, i'm just not interested. it
becomes just a mathematical algorithm, and anybody can come up with
one of those ("ok, we want it to be difficult to fight up close, so
give it reach...").
hell, this is my complaint with the 3E MM--AFAIC, they removed all of
the useful data [principly the "Ecology" and "Habitat/Society"
sections, but also not having complete, accurate physical
descriptions is most irksome], making it a useless book to me. i
wouldn't bother buying it even if i were running a D&D3E game--i've
got most of the 2E Monstrous Compendiums, and it'd be easier to
convert the stats from those than to invent the monsters to go with
the stats in the 3E book. for that matter, the descriptions are even
more wonderful in the Ars Magica Medieval Bestiary, so i could just
add stats to those.
--
woodelf <*>
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://members.home.net/woodelph/
If any religion is right, maybe they all have to be right. Maybe God
doesn't care how you say your prayers, just as long as you say them.
--Sinclair
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